As I was reading this thread here , in which a poster talks about being mystified by how a pump-action shotgun, I realised we hadn’t had a decent shotgun discussion thread in a while.
My main firearms interest is British & Commonwealth military firearms (as I’m sure many of you have already figured out!), but I’m also quite fond of shotguns as well- I do a reasonable amount of Fox and Hare hunting, and a 12-gauge is excellent for this.
In fact, several months ago I did something completely unheard of for me… I bought a brand new, in the box, firearm. :eek:
Lest you panic and think I’ve gone over to the Dark Side and purchased a Remington 700 or something equally pedestrian ;), I shall reassure you by letting you know that the new gun I purchased was, in fact, a modern reproduction of the Winchester Model 1887 12-gauge lever-action shotgun.
It’s had a few teething problems- it wasn’t ejecting the spent shells properly at first, and would often feed the fired shell back into the chamber instead of ejecting it- but I had the gunsmith look at it and now it ejects and cycles very nicely indeed. All in all, I’m very happy with it, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it at the clay target range! I haven’t had a chance to take it out hunting yet, but everyone I know who has been hunting with one says they’re excellent for bunnies, hares, and foxes, so I’m looking forward to using it in the field.
I know there’s a few other shotgun shooters here on the boards; come in, join us, and tell us all about your shotgun(s)!
I have a Mossberg 500 Cruiser in 12 ga, with an 18.5" barrel, which I bought with home defense in mind.
I have a Remington 870 in 20 ga, with a 28" barrel and a full choke, and a swappable 20" deer/slug barrel. I’ve used the first configuration for wild turkey and grouse; I’ve never used the slug barrel.
Finally, I have a Ruger Red Label Over/Under in 20 ga with which I have murdered numerous clay pigeons.
Mossberg 500 in 20ga, pre-68, no serial number, 26" barrel, for general shooting.
Brand new, to me, 1973 Charles Daly/Miroku Single Barrel Trap in a 32" barrel, for trap. Man, it’s a gorgeous weapon, hand-chiseled, light and easy to swing, feels like my dad’s Beretta.
Almost went for a Spartan 310, which is a Baikal, brought over by Remington. Very different feel.
I’m lucky, I’m in NY, and my local trap range is less than a mile and a half from my parent’s house, which is less than five miles from me. Before I found that, we had to use Thunder Mountain in Jersey.
On shooting Trap with a 20 ga shortbarreled pump: Yep. You can do it. It’s made me much more accurate. But when I stepped up with the Daly, with a ‘oh god, I was out till 2 AM’ headache, I scored better than I ever did with the Mossberg, and I went out there not expecting to shoot or own that gun that day.
There are some minor rust spots on the Daly. Anyone have some good suggestions for polishing them out?
Fox hunting is practiced as a form of pest control here in Australia, not a ritualised sport in its own right (as in the UK).
As such, usual practice is to either spotlight the fox at night and then shoot it with a rifle (something like a .22/250, .223, 6.5x55 Swedish calibre rifle) or a shotgun, or “call” the fox in using a Fox Whistle, at which point they’re typically about 30m away and well within range of a 12ga shotgun.
I prefer either 6.5x55 Swedish or 12ga for Fox/Hare hunting- I’ve had excellent results with my Swedish Mauser at ranges of up to 200m, and with the Coach Gun at closer range (around 20-50m).
Once upon a time I had a 12 gauge Browning BPS w/ walnut stock. It was nice. *Too * nice, to be honest. I found myself not wanting to shoot it or hunt with it for fear I might get it wet, scratch the walnut, or nick the bluing. I said to myself, “This is stupid. I want something I can use!”
So I sold the Browning and bought a Mossberg 500 w/ synthetic stock. It’s great… I don’t care if it gets dirty or scratched.
But to be honest, shotguns bore me. I *much * prefer rifles.
Do your Mossbergs have slide bars on both sides of the slide? Mine only has a bar on one side, and it has no serial number. That’s pretty much the only clues we have, as far as trying to figure out the age of the gun. Oh, and wood stock.
The addition of the second slide bar, I would judge, would improve the gun considerably.
I have a Springfield 20 ga break-action with a double barrel (side-by-side), duel triggers and 2 3/4" chamber.
I inherited it from my father-in-law (or, more aptly, since I never met him, my mother-in-law just gave it to me), but there’s no dating or serial number attached to it, so I’m not sure how old it is. Maybe mid-'40s?
There’s a surprising amount of information you can find from the markings on a gun. I was able to tell a friend that their gun dated from 44-46, was made in Canada, and was a Lee-Enfeld sniper model, from just what it said on it, without pictures.
I have three shotguns: A Huglu O/U 12, a Huglu O/U 20, and a Remington pump action 16 that my grandfather left me. I sold a shotgun when I got back to the states from Turkey and can’t remember what kind it was, maybe someone here can help. It was Turkish, and was selectable from auto to pump. It had a synthetic stock and an 8 round magazine tube. Anyone ever head of this thing? I’m looking for another, I miss the silly thing for plinking.
Hey, thanks for taking a peek, E-Sabbath. The other gun I received was a 1917 Eddystone 30-06, so I’m curious about the age of the Springfield–especially since I’ve seen some conflicting guesses floating around.
The top side of the barrel reads:
The left side (with stock facing you) reads:
The underside of the barrel, right above the forestock, and with the forestock removed, has a “P” stamped into the metal.
The top side of the forestock (right underneath the barrel) has “SV”, a B inside a circle, “167”, “20” and a sideways “C”
That’s it for markings as far as I can tell.
ETA: It might not help, but here’s a photo of the whole gun.
I’m wondering, though, if what you found might be part of the conflicting information I found out there.
I’d seen that in an earlier search, but my shotgun only has a circled letter, and not a circle and a number together, or even a separate circled number and separate circled letter. And the location of the circled B isn’t in either place suggested above (and even so, would we consider the forestock to be part of the frame?).
Adding to the confusion even more, I found several suggestions at WikiAnswers that the Springfield line of shotguns were not made after 1948:
It looks like, however, you found a reference to a model 167 being an over-under instead of a side-by-side. Me, I keep finding references to a model 67 (pump action) and that’s it.
You also found John Callahan for me, so I might pop him off a letter.
I have a completely unknown break action 20 ga, made by the same “Springfield Arms Company, Chicopee Falls Mass” above that I inherited from my Gramps, it is unique because it has a lovely wood stock, but a fakey bakelite plastic wood-grain fore-end. It may be operable, but it hangs on the wall.
My main duck hunting gun is a Charles Daly Field 3" 12ga auto. I bought it for something ridiculously cheap like $240 at my local gun shop. I have read a lot of unfavorable reviews of this gun, but I replaced the stock o-ring with something sturdier and have fired a minimum of 3000 shells through it with no problems. It is an incredibly light gun, which is a benefit and a drawback, It’s nice for slogging through swamps, but it beats the HELL out of your shoulder, especially when shooting high velocity steel.
I have a Winchester 1200 pump with a fixed full choke that I use for shooting trap in the backyard and for upland birds. I will occasionallly use this gun for rabbits as well.
Next on the list is a .410 that I won at a rabbit hunting tournament a few years ago, I honestly don’t even remember the make, it has a cool laser etching of a running rabbit on the stock, though!
Finally I have a Benelli Nova 12 ga that is my multipurpose gun. I have a rifled slug barrel with a red-dot scope for deer hunting in “shotgun-only” areas and the standard barrel for whatever else I might use it for.
If anyone is going to be in the area, email me. I have a 4 station “sporting clays” course set up on my little farm, and I can change the presentation of the clays pretty rapidly on 2 of the 4.
EBWOP: If it helps, the barrel on the old Springfield says " Barrel and lug forged in one piece" and when you open the action you can see either ‘WAPI’ or ‘WAP1’ on a tab under the barrel
